F4E and ALSYMEX celebrate the completion of the MITICA beam source

The MITICA beam source is getting ready to fire powerful ions. Fusion for Energy (F4E) and its contractor ALSYMEX have completed the assembly and factory tests of this strategic plasma-heating technology for ITER. The upcoming delivery to the Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF) will mark the successful closure of a 10-year collaboration that highlights the advanced skills and expertise of the European supply chain.

MITICA is a one-of-a-kind, strategic testbed. It is a full-size prototype of the ITER Neutral Beam Injectors (NBI), which are key to heating the plasma up to 150 million °C and sustaining the fusion reaction. The injectors are designed to shoot a beam of high-speed neutralised particles into the reactor. Through collisions with the ions in the plasma, each beam will deliver 16.5 MW energy —  a record power level for a technology of the kind.

Even if the physics are well understood, deploying neutral beam heating at the scale of ITER is an unprecedented challenge for scientists and engineers. This is why Europe, Japan, ITER Organization, and Consorzio RFX partnered to build MITICA at the NBTF in Padova, Italy. F4E, on behalf of Europe, is providing many of the critical technologies to be validated.

In 2018, F4E and ALSYMEX signed a multi-million contract to manufacture the beam source. This part of the injector consists of a radio frequency ion source to create negative deuterium ions and an acceleration grid to speed them up at 1 MeV using strong electrical fields. The assembled system weighs 15 tonnes and measures 3 × 3 × 4.5 m.

The beam source comes with very demanding design requirements. It must perform reliably while withstanding high heat fluxes and remaining perfectly leak-tight. The geometric tolerances are particularly stringent. For instance, the acceleration grids are pierced with thousands of holes that must be aligned with micrometric accuracy.

Shaping and joining the components required ultra-precise skills and techniques tailored to the various materials. ALSYMEX worked with a chain of 18 specialised firms, including Research Instruments (Germany), Galvano-T (Germany), CECOM (Italy) and 3D Metal Forming (Netherlands). Later, ALSYMEX carried out the integration, assembly and final tests at its workshop in Tarbes, France.

Joelle Vallory, Project Manager, reflects on the journey: “Transferring the design of a first-of-a-kind system to the industry floor came with its share of challenges. Thanks to the joint efforts and resilience of the teams of F4E, ITER Organization, Consorzio RFX and industrial partners, we managed to bridge that gap. Along the way, we learned valuable lessons for the ITER Neutral Beam Injectors and we helped mature critical technologies.”

The completion of such a complex technology called for a celebration. The teams and management of F4E and ALSYMEX, together with local authorities, gathered this week in Tarbes to honour a strong collaboration stretching beyond this project. In total, ALSYMEX has signed 29 contracts with F4E amounting to 460 million EUR.

“We are proud to celebrate 15 years of collaboration with ALSYMEX. With F4E’s investment and the dedication of ALSYMEX’s teams, the facility has turned into a European centre of innovation for fusion,” expressed Marc Lachaise, Director of F4E. “Today’s achievement matters even more in a world where energy is subject to geopolitical tensions. It’s important to master key technologies to shape our own future,” he added.

“For many years, F4E has supported ALSYMEX in developing skills, industrial capabilities, and technological solutions in support of ITER. This relationship of trust has been essential to the success of the project we are celebrating today,” said Olivier Huet, CEO of Alsymex. “The financial support of the EU through F4E has enabled the development of genuine European industrial expertise in some of the most demanding technological fields in the world,” he stressed.